It has long been known to cut, by hand, vegetables and the like into various shaped configurations for decorative purposes. It has also been long known to use a mechanical apparatus to cut vegetables into various simple, generally longitudinal shapes. For example, a CUISINART (a trade-mark) can be used to cut food produce into strips or juliennes and the like.
However, such known methods and apparatus cannot be applied on an industrial level where a high volume of produce is to be cut into complex, generally non-longitudinal shapes.
In our U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 354,940 filed May 22, 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,563, we disclose ways to automatically cut vegetables into certain particular shapes. It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for automatically cutting produce into certain other shaped configurations.